Towards Ichi-kyu

Arthur is determined to reach the rank of ichi-kyu at the kendama. We thought that the kendama was a Japanese toy but, according to Wikipedia, it originated in France and arrived in Japan via The Silk Road. In France, this toy was called a bilboquet and it eventually became popular across Europe. Apparently, Jane Austen was a master at the bilboquet and entertained her brother's son with her tricks.

There are several ranks of kendama mastery. The most basic is 10-kyu (ju-kyu.) To achieve ju-kyu ranking you need to have mastered one trick, that being the basic catching the ball on the spike. To achieve the highest kyu ranking (1-kyu or ichi-kyu) you need to master eleven tricks. This is what Arthur is currently working towards and it will not take him long, I think. He has incredible determination. Once he has hit upon something to master, his focus borders on the obsessive. He was the same with mastering the unicycle (a future blip for sure), winning running races and excelling at dodgeball.

So far, Arthur is able to catch the ball on the spike pretty much every time. He can also do Round The World (big cup to small cup to spike to tower) and moshikama (juggling the ball between big cup and small cup repeatedly over 100 times without dropping the ball.) How long it will take him to master all the 1,001 kendama tricks that are supposed to exist, that is anybody's guess. However, I am far happier to see him focus his efforts upon this than upon a Nintendo D.S.